Moon Duo (Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada) have an excellent new album out, Mazes. Some copies of the vinyl came with an extra cd of remixes, all of which are very good. This one is by Sonic Boom (of Spacemen 3 fame/infamy). Sonic Boom monkeys about with an already psychy/krauty drone to make it moreso. Although the remixes are just numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4 this one- 1- is a remix of Scars, one of the standouts from the album. The other remixes are just as good and some get weirder and psychier.
Don't ask me what's going on with the link below. Things have gone funny here tonight. Mediafire's gone weird. Blogger's being a bit odd too. Technical issues and I'm not sure if it's me or them. Recently the powers that be deleted Beastie Boys' Dr. Lee PhD track from my account but left the earlier post of the same band's Egg Man alone. Something else vanished from my account as well, can't remember what. How many strikes does a blog get?
Frankly, I have been getting a bit dicey about the morality of this kind of music blogging over the last couple of days. The request for the full Half Man Half Biscuit gig was interesting (not the whole reason for my qualms but it played a part). I didn't start this to post full albums or full gigs, just individual songs. No real reason, that's just how it seemed to work in my head when I started out. Mr H, who has the whole gig, was uneasy about posting it- after all, it'd be obvious where the gig recording and download would have come from, and he felt HMHB might be peeved. They might not be, but you can't be sure, and without the bands' permission it didn't feel right somehow, especially as they'd been such charming and friendly guys before and after the gig. I know the theory and the justifications and the whole stick-it-to-the-corrupt-music-industry arguments but a) I know some of the stuff posted here is otherwise unavailable or out of print, but some of it isn't, b) although feedback received here tells me that tracks I've posted have led to actual, paid for download or physical sales I don't know what the proportion is and how far this justifies this, c) I'm not here to deprive people like Nigel Blackwell or Billy Childish or Andrew Weatherall or whoever out of hard earned cash but that has probably happened, d) the writing and creative side is still enjoyable, I love it, and so are the links made with many of your goodselves but I dunno sitting here tonight if this justifies giving other peoples' art away for free without their permission. Yes, it is the promotion of music, and yes some people have given permission for their stuff to be given away for free, but still... I dunno. No decisions for now, just thinking aloud.
4 comments:
I've bought quite a lot of albums following posts by you, which without i may not have got onto... Also, it got me in some second records stores in search of oldies, keep up the good work!
I've had the same sort of feeling SA, I would never post a whole album and try to stick to one track a posting and I honestly want people to go out and buy stuff by the artists/bands I post.
But you will always get the people who would do anything rather than pay for stuff. I have a mate who I love dearly but every time we go out we end up arguing as he hasn't bought a fucking album since he worked out how to download from the internet but before that he would buy an album take it home, tape it and then take it back and get his money back!
I am certainly not here to stick it to the man, as no matter how many records that I have that are independent, some of my favourite albums are still on majors, okay it doesn't sit well with me but those albums give me pleasure and if it hadn't been for the labels taking the chance I may not have heard the album.
I see what we do as an extension of what I used to do with compilation tapes, only to more people and with the number of hits I get I am happy that Mr Weatherall, ATE et al aren't losing out on earnings through it. I think that if it ended up that they were I would sack it.
But lets face it, the majority of the people that take the time to visit us and read our pish are saddoes (and I mean that in a good way) like us that no matter how high the bitrate, if the can they will want to own the physical product.
I guess I resolve this conundrum (which I also periodically fret over) by posting stuff that either isn't available digitally or is at least 5 years old, so the artist should already have made sales. The post therefore (in my head) counts as trying to resurrect something that wouldn't otherwise sell. Newer stuff I only post with permission. I've only ever posted one full album, only because I couldn't find it anywhere on t'net.
Well I'm definitely going to buy Mazes (just pondering which format). I might even go and see them, if I can persuade my mate Al to get off his arse.
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